PEACE HOUSE

Peace House acknowledges that it is located on the ancestral homelands of the Shasta, Takelma, and Latgawa Nations, collectively known as the Rogue Tribes, who, along with other peoples who used the region seasonally, lived here since time immemorial. These and other Tribal Nations were forcibly removed from their homelands when European invaders inflicted genocide upon Indigenous communities and took control of land, water and natural resources abundant here in the mid 1800s. Euro-American colonization led to war, starvation, resource extraction, and epidemics that imperiled whole communities and irreversibly harmed sacred sites, rivers, and land across the region.

The US and Oregon State governments signed treaties with Tribal Nations, but broke nearly all of them in the decades to come, resulting in a full occupation of Tribal lands for the benefit of European migrants alone. Today, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz represent many of the living descendents of the Takelma, Shasta, and Latgawa peoples.

Peace House recognizes the legacy of knowledge and resiliency of these and other Indigenous peoples. We support the affirming opportunities available from the Land Back movement, among other Indigenous-led initiatives for reconciliation. We recognize also that land acknowledgment statements are performative unless met with meaningful and sustained relationships with local Native communities.

Special thanks to Brook Colley and Dan Wahpepah for their contributions to this statement.